Pianist
Yulianna Avdeeva
won the 16th International Chopin Piano Competition, and one can imagine what put her over the top; she has a style in
Chopin
that definitely makes her stand out from the crowd of
pianists. Words like edgy and steely come to mind, hardly words that are usually associated with
. Her playing is a matter of taste, but one should note that it may work especially well here. The album's
Chopin: Voyage
title is too generic, for
Avdeeva
is actually doing something quite specific, namely focusing on
's late style. The opus numbers of the five works here, in fact, are sequential, from
58
to
62
. Writers have struggled to define a "late" style for
, who, like other composers who died young, wasn't really planning on dying. However, there is a definite harmonic complexity and an orientation toward counterpoint that marks all the works here, and
's style works well with it. Her
Nocturnes
at the beginning may seem only slightly nocturnal, but give a good listen to the album's main attraction, the
Piano Sonata No. 3 in B minor, Op. 58
.
makes a good case for the work as a true sonata, as opposed to a set of four character pieces, and she captures a good deal of complex detail in the work. Other attractions here include
's piano and the space in which it was recorded. She plays
Vladimir Horowitz
's personal piano, which somehow ended up at the Tippet Rise Art Center in Fishtail, Montana, where the
Pentatone
label recorded the work.
does seem to channel something of
Horowitz
's commanding presence, and the piano's sound in the small wooden building has extraordinary presence and intimacy. Opinions may differ about
's playing here, but the album is nowhere anything less than an intriguing and absorbing
release. It made classical best-seller charts in the autumn of 2024. ~ James Manheim